Positive psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky says, “Research demonstrates that exercise may be the most reliable happiness booster of all activities.”

“But how does it make us happier?”

The Brain Science Of Exercise

“This is how. It’s actually the chemicals that give us a happiness boost.”

“What chemicals?”

“The brain-chemicals – the neurochemicals!”

“Do they make us happy, as we exercise?”

“Sure, they do!”

It happens this way: exercise increases blood flow to our brains, lifts our moods, forms new neurons, and releases some vital brain chemicals as endorphin. Of all the ways that give us a rush of happiness while we exercise, this neurochemical mechanism comes first.

John Ratey, the world-famous exercise researcher, says, “Exercise generates the release of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain. Exercise increases the brain’s learning and memory capacities. People’s mood significantly increased after exercising.”

The Fouth One

BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), the 4th one on that list above, is perhaps the most interesting one, which the scientists say repairs the memory neurons. This chemical could be the reason a bout of exercise clears our thoughts and reboots our thinking patterns.

Exercise researcher MK McGovern says, “One of the most exciting changes that exercise causes is neurogenesis, creation of new neurons. The new neurons are created in the hippocampus, the center of learning and memory in the brain.”

But McGovern warns that you can’t overexercise your way to a brilliant memory, because beyond a certain point the BDNF doesn’t increase any more with exercise.

The Last Two

Leptin has a role to give us that runner’s high, as proposed recently by researcher Stephanie Fulton at University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre in August 2015. Usually, the more body fat, the more leptin, and the less we feel like eating or moving.

So, when leptin levels are high, your brain gets the message that it has enough food — and you stay put in your couch. But when leptin levels are low, the brain gets a signal to run and keep running (as our jungle-living ancestors did for searching food).

Low leptin levels motivate us to exercise and make it easier to get feelings of elation, the runner’s high.

And, of course, we must talk of the role played by endorphins. Endorphins release into the brain during sustained, vigorous exercise. When we exercise, our sympathetic nervous system triggers a flight-or-fight-or freeze response; as a result, the endorphins flow into the brain.

Endorphins, called body’s own natural antidepressant, ease the mental and physical pain.

While they minimize the discomfort of exercise and block the feeling of pain, they so much as make us feel a little euphoric – known as “post-exercise high.”

The Crux Of It

Almost immediately on starting exercise, a neurochemical orchestrated euphoria sets off. This euphoric effect is greatest in the beginning, but it can last long till waning off.

So, if you want to feel happy now, get a short bout of exercise. In 20 minutes, you’ll find yourself happier and peppier.

As a bonus, you get to keep the positive mood benefits of those 20 minutes for up to twelve hours.

“So, there it goes – exercise gives you a rush of happiness via brain chemicals.”

Next Up, SMILE

SMILE stands for Standard Medical Intervention & Long-term Exercise. In the year 2000, Michael Babyak and his team conducted an exercise study. They chose 156 people suffering from depression, with ages 50 to 77 years. Each had a clinical diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD).

The researchers divided them into three random groups:

Exercise Group (Group A): They received instructions to do aerobic exercise, 45 min a day for 3 times a week.

Medication Group (Group B): This group was to take their regular antidepressant medicines.

Combination Group (Group C): These were to follow a combination of the aerobics and antidepressants.

The exercise group spent 30 minutes either riding a stationary bike or walking or jogging 3 times a week. The anti-depressant used by the medication group was sertraline, a SSRI class drug commonly used to treat depression.

Results after 4 months showed improvement in all the 3 groups — all felt happier and better, and less depressed. No surprise there.

After 10 months, however, reports that started coming in were nothing short of unexpected. 38% of those on only antidepressants went back into depression again. A similar thing happened to 31% of those on combination therapy.

However, those who only exercised, Group A, their relapse into depression was the least — a surprising 9%.

So, does that mean we can exercise to cure our depression? To answer that, and explain the results of this study, Tal Ben-Shahar in his 2010 book Even Happier writes, “Is exercising, then, like taking an antidepressant? Not exactly. In essence, not exercising is like taking a depressant.”

To gain optimal amount of happiness from it, do regular exercise for at least 20 minutes a day. If you’re interested in finding happiness in other ways, you can check out these 10 science-backed happiness hacks.

Once again, the secret to finding happiness from exercise is: 20 minutes, every day.

The How Of The Why

“But how does it happen really? What do these chemicals do to give us that lift?”

Self-mastery – We feel better in control of our bodies and the capabilities of our bodies. In turn, this makes us feel better in control over our circumstances.

Distraction – Exercise distracts us from negative thought patterns as worrying and overthinking, and thereby cuts down our stress.

Social contact – Exercising with a friend or family or a group provides the chance of increased social contact, which we know makes us happier.

Strength & stamina – With regular exercise, we witness the growth of our strength and stamina. This boosts our goal-achievement confidence, which spills over to other areas of our life.

Final Words

Recently, a new study revealed how exercise helps the body remove toxic substances linked to stress-related depression. The research was published in the scientific journal Cell.

Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet have found that exercise causes important changes in skeletal muscles. These changes help to purge the blood of substances harmful to the brain which build up during stress.

Dr. Jorge Ruas, who led the study, said: “Our initial research hypothesis was that trained muscle would produce a substance with beneficial effects on the brain. We actually found the opposite: well-trained muscle produces an enzyme that purges the body of harmful substances.”